Azure Microsoft Cloud Agent; Microsoft Cloud Server AzureVM Comprehensive Evaluation
In the battle field of public cloud, if you ask a domestic development or operation and maintenance: "What cloud do you usually use?" Most people's answers are nothing more than Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud or Huawei Cloud.
But if you ask a multinational giant, foreign company, or independent software developer (ISV) who specializes in large overseas customers, "Where is your underlying infrastructure?"
Microsoft Cloud Azure
Definitely a colossus that can't be ignored.
As a technology veteran who has moved back and down countless times among all kinds of public clouds, I have found that many people are interested in Microsoft's cloud servers.
Azure VM(Virtual Machines, virtual machine)
There is a stereotype: "That's for foreigners, isn't it an IQ tax to buy it at home?" Or "Are Microsoft's things only suitable for running the Windows Server architecture?"
Today, let's tear up all subjective biases and official advertisements, pull them directly to the real production environment, and conduct a thorough and heart-wrenching comprehensive evaluation of Azure VM.
1. chassis strength: global backbone network and unique "physical map"
To evaluate whether a cloud server is good or not, the first step is not to look at CPU running points, but to look at it.
Where is the cloth? The Internet is not working.
.
In this regard, Microsoft has demonstrated what is called "rich willful" money ability.
1. The ultimate antidote to multinational business: a truly global Anycast backbone
Many overseas computer rooms of domestic cloud manufacturers use ordinary public networks between nodes. If your U.S. virtual machine wants to communicate with European virtual machines, the traffic will have to be folded and folded on the public network, and the delay and packet loss rate are touching.
Microsoft has pulled hundreds of thousands of kilometers of private fiber around the world. When you buy two Azure VMs located in different countries (such as the US West and Western Europe), the cross-border data transfer between them is completely different by default.
Microsoft's own private backbone
. Network latency is extremely stable, approaching that of a local area network across rooms.
2. Special "compliance dividend" of dual identity"
For domestic enterprises, Microsoft Cloud has an exclusive big move: it has landed in mainland China through the Century Internet "Blue Cloud (Azure China)", and overseas "international version of Azure" in
Almost 100 percent mirrored on schema and API
.
For foreign companies entering China: only need to change the endpoint of overseas deployment scripts (ARM templates or Terraform) to seamlessly land in the domestic compliance computer room at zero cost.
For domestic enterprises to go to sea: in the domestic development and testing, one click can be mirrored and released to more than 60 regions (Regions) in the world, saving a lot of compliance approval and restructuring costs.
2. Actual Performance Pressure Test: How Hard Core Does Azure VM Have?
The specification naming of Azure VM is like a string of complex biometric passwords (such
Stan
dard_D4s_v5
), the novice took a look at the blood pressure came up. Old Bird uses vernacular to help you translate. Microsoft's core examples are actually divided into three main forces:
B series (Burstable): integral system sharing type. At ordinary times, points are accumulated when not in use, and points are consumed when sudden large traffic occurs. It is very suitable for testing environment, personal blog or small traffic API. The price is cheap enough to make you wonder if this is Microsoft.
D series (General Purpose): universal type. CPU and memory ratio is 1:4 (such as 4 core 16G). Measured using the latest AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon processors. With sysbench pressure measurement, the CPU calculation force curve is stable as a straight line. Microsoft's control over overselling is extremely strict, and there is almost no case of the calculation force being stolen by the next door neighbor.
E Series (Memory Optimized): Memory optimized type. Specially used to run high concurrency MySQL, PostgreSQL or Redis.
Storage Chassis's Black Tech: Ultra Disk
In cloud servers, disk I/O is often the biggest bottleneck. Azure's ordinary SSD performs well, but if you are willing to pay to upgrade to their
Ultra Disk
, the pressure test results will make you lose your chin:
It allows you to adjust IOPS and throughput independently without increasing the capacity of the hard drive! You can pull a disk with only 100GB, IOPS directly to more than 100,000. For those enterprise core databases with a small amount of data, but extremely high concurrent read and write requirements, and tables are always locked, this is a "performance oil" that can be bought with your eyes closed ".
3. real-life survey: which places are cool? Which places want to make people crazy?
In line with the principle of objectivity and fairness, we must boast of its advantages, but we must never let go of its slot.
👍Let a person feel very cool flash points:
Support for Linux is not as good as Microsoft's: many people think that the Microsoft cloud can only run Windows. In fact, more than 60% of virtual machines on Azure currently run Linux(Ubuntu, CentOS, etc.). Microsoft in the Linux community under the blood, optimize the underlying Hyper-V driver. Running Docker, K8s or compiling Node.js on Azure VM is the same as native Linux.
Seamless closed-loop Microsoft ecology: If your company relies heavily on Active Directory(AD domain control), SQL Server, or Office 365,Azure VM provides a reduced-dimension integration experience. One-click identity linkage, permission control is detailed to the capillary level, which is used by other cloud vendors.
There is absolutely no experience.
👎people want to hit the keyboard slot point:
Console (Azure Portal) Heavy "Dola": Microsoft Cloud's console is very powerful, but its UI logic is typical of "breadcrumbs + infinite right slider". When you click from the virtual machine into the network interface, and then click into the security group (NSG), and then click into the public network IP... You will find that your screen has been extended to the right more than ten layers, looking for a return button to find scalp tingling.
The concept term is too academic: other cloud vendors call it "security group" and Microsoft has to call it "network security group (NSG)"; Other cloud vendors are called "routers/gateways", and Microsoft has come up with a bunch of "availability sets (Availability Sets)" and "close placement groups (Proximity Placement Groups)". For developers who are accustomed to the silly Internet thinking of large domestic factories, it seems like reading a serious computer doctoral thesis for the first time.
A Guide to "Saving Money and Avoiding Pits" for 4. and Operating Old Birds
Azure works well, but if it's not configured properly, its bill is enough to make you hurt. Remember the following two moves that will save you at least half your silver:
Never run naked with public network IP: Azure VM will give you a public network IP when it is created by default. Please note that Azure's public network traffic (Outbound Data Transfer) is very detailed and expensive. If your microservices accidentally go public IP when they call each other across regions, next month's bill will bankrupt you directly.
Make good use of "Reserved Instance (Reserved Instances)" and Spot (Spot) virtual machines: If you are sure that this server will run for more than one year, buy "1-year or 3-year reservation" decisively, and the price will be directly reduced by 40% to 60%. If you just run temporary data analysis and batch processing tasks to rob Spot VM (using Microsoft's idle computing power), the price can be cheaper by more than 80%, as long as others accept automatic recycling when paying high prices.
Summary: Who exactly is Azure VM right?
After a round of ordeal, Azure VM gave me the overall feeling that:
A suit, unsmiling, but extremely tough "international business elite"
.
If you just want to spend tens of dollars on a personal toy and a crawler, the domestic friendly business promotion is more suitable for you.
However, if your enterprise is doing overseas business, multinational independent stations, SaaS software going to sea, or your back-end has a large number of complex scenarios where Windows are mixed with Linux and rely deeply on Microsoft ecology, then Azure VM's global backbone network chassis, strict privacy compliance protection and strong cloud disk performance are definitely worth you to entrust your core assets to it.